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FORMER MISSOURI SENATOR TAKES TO K STREET: Former Sen. Kit Bond is making a play in the influence game. Kit Bond Strategies is now lobbying for the City of Kansas City Missouriand Broadway Square Partners,according to a recent filing. One interesting twist — Bond himself isn’t registered to do the work. His former aides Matthew Roney and Jason VanEaton are lobbying on an “IRS Service Center project and FAA training center project” for Broadway Square Partners. Rooney and Shana Marchio are lobbying to “facilitate housing initiatives that improve urban development” for Kansas City. Bond retired from the Senate in 2011.

HEALTH CARE CLIENTS HIRE UP LOBBYISTS: Health care centers and trade associations are hiring up firms to lobby on implementation of the Affordable Care Act and issues related to Medicaid and Medicare, according to Senate lobbying disclosures. Hooper, Lundy & Bookman’s Martin Corry and Kelly Lavin have been hired to lobby on behalf of five new clients — Dialysis Clinic Inc., Independent Health, Priority Health, Radiation Therapy Alliance and UPMC Cancer Center. Another firm, Rubin Health Policy Consulting, also signed four new clients: Association of American Medical Colleges, Kindred Healthcare Operating Inc., The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care and Visiting Nurses Associations of America. The firm’s Neleen Eisinger will be lobbying on their behalf.

LIVESTRONG FOUNDATION HIRES TWO:LIVESTRONG Foundation has appointed Robyn Burchfiel as vice president of major gifts and Cameron Krier as director of government relations. Burchfiel previously served in a similar role at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and Krier previously served as vice president for federal affairs, advocacy and public policy for the Texas Hospital Association and as legislative counsel to former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas). The new appointments follow Lance Armstrong’s resignation from the board. Armstrong, the face of the charity, recently admitted to systematically doping throughout his career.

GOOD FRIDAY AFTERNOON, where it's the 98th anniversary of one of the most controversial films of all time: D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation." The film was a technical masterpiece at the time but also was criticized for its portrayal of black Americans and romanticization of the racist South. It would also reportedly be used as a recruiting tool by the newly re-formed and re-empowered Ku Klux Klan. Griffith was so stung by the accusations of racism and prejudice that he directed the film "Intolerance" in 1916 to make some amends. And his film "Broken Blossoms" was perhaps the first movie to portray an interracial romance between a Chinese man and a white woman. Send your lobbying and campaign finance news, gossip, tips, scoops and greasy spoon diner recommendations to btau@politico.com or apalmer@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter at @ByronTau and @apalmerdc. Tarini is at tparti@politico.com or on Twitter at @tparti.

AD WATCH: SEIU TOPS: The SEIU/Health Care Education Project tops the list of advertisers in this week's Hill rags (POLITICO, The Hill and Roll Call). The union unveiled a big ad buy with 6 full-age ads across the three newspapers this week, according to PI's ad tracking (with a little help from our friends on the Hill). Coming in second: Honda and Huntington Ingalls Industries, with three full page ads. Honda has also bought all the advertising space at the Capitol South metro station. Last week's top advertiser, Goldman Sachs, placed two ads this week in the Hill newspapers.

SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES HUNTER-SPECIFIC SUPER PAC: Safari Club International is officially launching a hunter-specific super PAC, filing paperwork today with the FEC. The group is converting its PAC into a hunter-specific super PAC. The group will utilize the Hunter Defense Fund to increase its chances of defeating candidates it sees as “anti-hunting extremists and protect the hunting heritage,” according to a PI tipster. The Hunter Defense Fund will also support lawmakers who support hunting. Click here for the website: www.hunterdefensefund.org.

FRANCHISERS WIN GRASSROOTS AWARD: The International Franchise Association is being awarded the grassroots innovation award by the Public Affairs Council at its national grassroots conference in Florida. The trade group got the award for its custom mobile app, developed by The Beekeeper Group, for its September fly-in getting 500 attendees to use their Franchising = Jobs message through the app using Twitter and Facebook to lobby Congress to extend the current tax rates and avoid the fiscal cliff. Click here to see all the winners: http://bit.ly/Wz1kt4

CROSSROADS TAX-EXEMPT STATUS STILL NOT APPROVED: The Internal Revenue Service has still not approved the tax-exempt status of the conservative outside group Crossroads GPS. The IRS writes in a letter to PI colleague Ken Vogel that it has no records of the group's approved application. Crossroads's application has been pending since 2010. Campaign finance reformers such as the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 have been urging the IRS to deny the application on the grounds that Crossroads is not spending enough of its time on social welfare advocacy.

The problem? President Barack Obama’s surrogates have also created a 501(c)(4) advocacy group called Organizing for Action. It would smack of politics to approve the OFA tax-exempt status application but deny it to a prominent conservative group. See the IRS's letter to Vogel here: http://bit.ly/11Ug7Sw

AARP LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE CHAINED CPI:AARP is ramping up efforts against chained CPI with the State of the Union around the corner. The group has sent 4 million emails asking supporters to sign a petition, urging the president to “strengthen Social Security without cutting the benefits of current retirees.” AARP will also be running six weeks of national and in-district ads and launching an online widget where people can enter their information and find out how the chained CPI would affect them.

LATHAM KEEPS ‘KITCHEN CABINET’ IN THE LOOP: Campaign fundraisers for Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) sent an email update this week to downtowners who have agreed to serve on “Tom’s Kitchen Cabinet.” The email flags Latham’s consideration of a run for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) seat, noting that a final decision should come in May. “We are hoping that you can provide early support to the campaign and encourage others to do the same,” the fundraisers write.

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ROSKEY JOINS COZEN O’CONNOR:Colin Roskey has joined Cozen O’Connor’s Philadelphia and Washington offices as a member of the firm’s Health Care Group and Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies. Roskey previously worked for Alston & Bird and in several positions on Capitol Hill.

VENABLE HIRES BARNETT:James Arden Barnett, retired rear admiral and former chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for the Federal Communications Commission, has joined Venable’s Telecommunications Group as co-chairman. He most recently served as senior vice president of national security policy at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

BUTTERFIELD TO FUDNRAISE IN BERMUDA: Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) is hosting a fundraiser to benefit his campaign committee at The Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda from May 17-19. The fundraiser, which will cost $2,500 per person, includes a Friday evening welcome reception, Saturday evening dinner and Sunday morning tour of the island.

POLL: VOTERS THINK McCONNELL REPRESENTS SPECIAL INTERESTS: The liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee is circulating a new poll by the Democratic-leaning firm PPP that shows that Kentucky voters believe Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) represents special interests more than "regular" folks. The poll finds 53 percent say that McConnell represents his campaign contributors more, while 36 percent say he represents the people of the state. Eleven percent are not sure. The poll comes on the heels of a new PCCC ad that hits McConnell on the amount of money he has taken from the gun manufacturers industry. Given the poll results, the group is hoping to further link McConnell to special interests with their ad campaign.

SLIM HOSTS NEW MEXICAN AMBASSADOR: Carlos Slim — the Mexican business magnate and richest man in the world, according to Forbes — held a private reception in Washington for the incoming Mexican ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina-Mora. (h/t Phil Coticelli)

CRIST UPPED AT HEALTH ASSOCIATION: Greg Crist was recently elevated to senior vice president at the American Health Care Association.

ELSEWHERE IN THE INFLUENCE WORLD:

The D.C. Council could have a comprehensive campaign finance reform bill that includes public financing come up this year, reports Tim Craig of The Washington Post. http://wapo.st/WxKris

Megachurches, Broadway producers and the National Football League are lobbying to save the wireless microphone, reports Danny Yadron of The Wall Street Journal. http://on.wsj.com/YIg4o6

When members of Congress consider whether to extend low rates for federally subsidized student loans, many of them will be able to relate to those who have student loans, reports Russ Choma of the Center for Responsive Politics.

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